The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-03-03
boom is already assuming big proper
lions. Perhaps it is; but if it is I'd like

SNSA~ ~
tions. Perhaps it is; but if it is I'd like
to congratulate the sponsors for it upon
the exceedingly thorough way in which
it manages to escape detection. Perhaps
pretty fair example Of the sweep of
this building boom is 10 be had from a
page that stares up at rne out of that
prospectus which my friend WIS kind
enough to give me. This particular
page has the cut of building on it..
There is something exceedingly magnif-
cent about that building; it is big, it is
ornate. "The Caldwell Hotel" That is
what its appended line of Eype has to say
of it. Description in words would fall
short of justice. The engraver's lines
best hint at the glory of it. Add some
balconies, parapet or two, and terraces
add these to New York's Fifth avenue
hotel and make the Fifth avenue some.
what bigger, then you have an idea,
inadequate, perhaps, but still an idea of
what the "The Caldwell Hotel" is like
in the prospectus picture before me. Alb,
the Birmingham of it! "The Caldwell
Hotel" is yet mere hole in the ground.
There are few stones in the hole and a
little mortar holds the stones together.
"We've got the foundation all laid
already" said boomer Of this special
Birmingham enterprise. "How long
have you been building thus far?" I
asked. "Since last spring." be told me,
adding: eve would have had it all
done and running by this time, only the
builders could not get material fast
enough" ventured to suggest that
they hadn't seemed to want things very
fast, and the gentleman looked as if he
pitied me. He told me that the Caldwell
hotel was good thing for the city, even
if it were never built; the mere digging
of that hole in the ground had sent up
property all around it over SO per cent
Probably my ability at figuring is much
cralnped. Anyhow here is a problem
that 1 cannot make come out as Bir-
mingham seems able to make it come
out: eff it takes from May to February
to build the foundation of one house,
how long it is going 10 take to build a
whole city ?" The right answered. Bir.
mingham mathematicians all have it
the right answer is just sixty minutes
But somehow 1 cai.'t make it come out
that way. Still, building or no building,
the real estate boom goes merrily on.
1t is claimed, that with apparent jus
tice, that city gained 10000 in the twelve
months just ended. Where are those
10000 people living? There are few
more houses here now than there were 8
year ago. A building boom that booms,
that is what Birmingham needs most
next to a system of drainage that shall
empty her yards of nastiness and
stenches. And the need lis almost as
urgent on the same score of health's de.
mands. People are cooped up here as nc
people can stay cooped up and stay free
of disease. Not in the prospectus? No
but it is true nevertheless.
"Real estate spectators have run the
price of property up so high" said ar
intelligent citizen to me the other day
"that a poor man can't afford to have
anything like a decent house unless he
lives so far out of town that he has tt
ride two mules to death to get to hil
work"
1t was my task to go in among lht
workers; / saw them at their work ano
I saw them at their homes. There ii
going to be q row down here one of these
days if affairs go on as now. Every mar
who earns dollar and spends il in Bir
mingham to day is paying tribute to tht
real estate boomer, whose levy of tax il
chiefly upon the man who least car
afford to pay it-he who gets but 81 o.
81 for whole days work. 1t would b.
the service of philanthropist to last
every one of these boomers out beyonl
the city limits; their presence here is {
threat that deserves rank with othe
evils that I've told about.